Nearly 80% of secondary-level English teachers and more than 85% of mathematics teachers in Bangladesh lack honours or master's degrees in their respective disciplines, exposing a shortfall in subject-specific expertise that educationists say threatens the quality of classroom instruction.
According to Bangladesh Education Statistics 2025, only 12,893 of the 64,253 English teachers and 9,918 of the 67,697 mathematics teachers hold higher degrees in their respective subjects.
The deficit in subject expertise coincides with a retreat in professional training. Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis) show that the proportion of trained teachers fell from around 73% in 2013 to 59.48% a decade later, a decline of 13.52 percentage points.
Subject expertise in short supply
Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education and a former caretaker government adviser, said teachers without advanced knowledge of their subjects often struggle to deliver effective instruction, leaving some reliant on guidebooks.
"If a teacher does not have advanced knowledge of the subject they teach, they cannot be expected to teach it well. This is why teachers have to rely on guidebooks," she said.
She called for a two-pronged response: recruiting new teachers with relevant academic backgrounds and upgrading the skills of those already in service. Educated young people could be trained and appointed as subject specialists, she said, while schools needed to break free from what she described as the "guidebook syndicate".
The mismatch between academic qualifications and teaching assignments is apparent in individual schools. Majeda Mujib, a teacher at Tejgaon School and College with honours and a master's degree in Bangla literature, teaches history.
Although her students performed exceptionally well in examinations, Majeda said the institution had repeatedly sought a mathematics teacher from the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education but received none, forcing physics teachers to teach mathematics as well.
At Gauripur High School in Natore, a teacher who requested anonymity said he has taught English for years despite holding a master's in political science. He said he had to undertake extensive independent study to teach the subject, even as his students achieved good results.
"I had to study English intensively on my own for a long time to teach the subject. The students are doing well. Had I held a relevant degree, teaching might have been somewhat easier," he said.
Recruitment shifts towards subject specialisation
The problem partly reflects an earlier recruitment model in which teachers were appointed to broad academic groups rather than individual subjects, said Syed Akhtaruzzaman, chairman of the Dhaka Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.
Under that system, a teacher recruited for the science group was not necessarily a mathematics major. For example, BSc graduates could be assigned subjects beyond their areas of expertise, with science teachers often expected to cover multiple disciplines.
"If we want to ensure quality education, we should recruit teachers for specific subjects," he said.
Some institutions have sought to address the mismatch. Majeda Begum, principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, said around 80% of its teachers taught subjects in which they held higher degrees, while the rest taught subjects within their respective groups.
Anadinath Mondal, a mathematics teacher at Dhaka Residential Model College with higher qualifications in the subject, said the institution systematically assigned classes to teachers specialising in the relevant subjects – although he occasionally explained science topics he understood well.
Educationist Manzoor Ahmed cautioned that subject-specific recruitment must be accompanied by proper professional training.
He described the absence of qualified teachers and adequate training as a major shortcoming, adding that the lack of a coherent plan to address the problem underscored the need for greater policy attention.
English, mathematics performance weaker outside Dhaka
The 2026 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examination results offer another indication of the difficulties students face in mastering the two subjects, with several education boards outside Dhaka recording higher failure rates than the capital.
In Mymensingh, 33.36% of students failed English and 30.39% failed mathematics. English failure rates reached 30.76% in Barishal and 30.89% in Sylhet.
Dhaka recorded lower rates, with 21.60% failing English and 17.15% failing mathematics. In Dinajpur, the respective rates were 27.09% and 28.95%.
Educationists say the uneven results may partly reflect disparities in the availability of subject-qualified and adequately trained teachers. The examination figures alone, however, do not establish a direct causal relationship between teacher qualifications and student performance.